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Scythia
To the ancient authors, Scythia was a land of unsettled people, role reversals and horses. In this article, we will break down what the authors discussed and focused on to see what intrigued the ancient audiences about the Sycthians. Tribes There is a discussion a Scythian tribe called the Sauromatai, location near Lake Maeotis, modern day Sea of Azov. Discussion of customs in regards to environmental determinism. Unmarried women take on masculine roles i.e. ride horses, practice archery and hurling javelins from horseback. Women can only marry if they kill three enemies and make traditional sacrifices. Girls in infancy are branded by a special device to stop their right breast from growing. Hippocratic Corpus On Airs, Waters, Places, 17= RECW 3.1 pp.37-38 Lifestyle Scythians are nomadic, live in a wet climate and in meadows. They live in wagons on four or six wheels that are covered with felt and constructed like houses. Women stay inside, men ride alongside with the sheep, oxen and horses behind. Where they live depends on the animals and availability of food. Scythians eat roasted meet, mare’s milk cheese called hippace and drink mare’s milk. Hippocratic Corpus On Airs, Waters, Places, 18= RECW 3.1 pg.38 The Sycthians are very protective of the milk they get from their mares. They blind the slaves because of it. They get the milk by taking pipes made of bones and using them to blow into the mare’s genitals. This causes the udders to drop, allowing them to be milked. The slaves then stir the milk, and draw the upper part from the lower part as the lower part was considered lesser. Herodotus, Histories 4.2 = RECW 14.2 pg.306 The characteristics and way of life of Scythians are tied to the fact they live in a cold, wet climate and as such, are chilled all year round. Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos 2.2 = RECW 3.13 pg.50 The Callippidea, and the Borysthenites, tribes in Scythia are farmers. They eat grain, onions, garlic, lentils and millet. Any other tribe outside of these two that grow grain do it to sell it, not to eat it. Herodotus, Histories 4.17 = RECW 14.2 pg.309 The Scythians do drink wine but they only seem to drink it once a year. Each province mixes up a communal crater of wine. If you have killed an enemy during the year they can take a drink from it. If they kill an especially large number, they can have two cups of wine. Herodotus, Histories 4.66 = RECW 14.2 pg.313 Some Scythian clothing was supposedly made from human skin. According to Herodotus: "Scythians also make cloaks like peasants' clothes to wear out by stitching the scalps together. Many men also skin the right arm of their dead enemies up to their fingernails and make covers for their quivers..." Histories 4.64 = RECW 14.2 p. 313 There are also the Scythians who make their clothes from cannabis. Histories 4.74 = RECW 14.2 p.313> Physique Men and women are infertile. Men because they are flabby and bloated therefore, cannot draw a bow or hurl a javelin. They are red-faced, male children stay in the wagon until older enough to ride and they rarely walk. Horseback riding renders the males unfit, the females are so fat that their wombs are clogged and their wombs cannot absorb the man’s seed. The only reason there are children are because the men conceive with the slave girls because they are fit and strong. Hippocratic Corpus On Airs, Waters, Places, 20-22 = RECW 3.1 pp.39-40 Location Scythians are the most westerly group of humans in Asia and the first you encounter in Europe. Located between the Scythian and Caspian Seas, look northward. Pomponius Mela, Description of the World 1.11-18 = RECW 6.11 pg.94 Supposedly the land of the Scythians is mostly treeless. Histories 4.61 = RECW 4.2 p. 312 Cannabis grows in this land, which looks like flax but is thicker and taller. Histories 4.74 = RECW 14.2 p. 315 Notes